50 handy Office 2013 tips, tricks and hints

Explore Microsoft's Office suite

Whether you've bought the apps as one-offs, the whole Office 2013 suite or signed up for Microsoft's new Office 365 subscription package, there's lots to like about the new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

If you've taken the plunge with the new-look touch-friendly apps, these tips and tricks can help you go further with the software - from tailoring the interface to embedding online clips, there's plenty to explore.

We've tried to focus on the new features in Office 2013 (though you will find some tricks that work across the board), while providing a mix of quick hints and more in-depth tips to suit every level of user.

General tips

1. Stream Office anywhere

Use your Microsoft ID to stream copies of your Office apps to other PCs (Windows 7 or Windows 8). Log into the Office website to use Office on Demand.

2. Pin locations

Save your most-used folders to the Open screen in any application - use the pin icon to the right of a recently opened workbook or folder.

3. Save to SkyDrive

Office 2013 makes full use of your SkyDrive account, and you can save your files to the cloud, access them from anywhere and sync them across computers.

4. Use Flickr and Facebook pictures

Connect accounts to drop in pictures from Facebook or Flickr

Drop in pictures from the newly revamped Flickr or Facebook by connecting your account through the Online Pictures option under the Insert tab.

5. Change Office's look and theme

Access the Account page from the File tab in any app to reveal a selection of options for changing the background and theme of the suite.

6. Zoom with your fingers

Using a fancy touchscreen laptop or tablet with Office 2013? Use two fingers to zoom in or out of any document, just like on your smartphone.

7. Add apps

Office finally joins the app revolution - visit the Office website to find apps you can run on top of Word, Excel and Outlook. The store is labelled as US-only, but you can still make use of it.

8. Remove the Start screen

Turn off the new all-singing all-dancing Start page if you don't like it

When launched, the Office 2013 apps show a dynamic Start screen by default. To see a blank new document instead, select File and Options, then untick the Start screen option on the General tab.

9. Get Skyping

If you've signed up for the subscription-based 365 flavour of Office 2013, you may not know that you get 60 minutes of Skype credit free each month.

10. Try a parallel install

You might have already noticed this, but you can keep older versions of Office running alongside the 2013 version, should you need to (with the exception of Outlook).